Raise a glass of Guinness to St. Paddy… and to a couple of Irish green tech finds this week.

Social gaming app for saving energy: JouleBug, a social gaming iPhone app for saving energy, was released this week at SXSW.
ENERGY STAR certified buildings increase by nearly 60%: That’s just one finding from this week’s release of its third annual report on the top 25 cities for ENERGY STAR certified buildings.

Lots of apps this week… for Freecycling, sharing your juice with electric vehicles drivers, and teaching the kids about rainforest ecosystems.

Organize your Freecycling: Like to search for used treasures on service like Freecycle and Freegle? The Trash Nothing online app allows you to organize your activities at various recycling groups.

i-Tree 4.0 is out: OK, this won’t garner the attention of the iPad 2, but the latest update of the US Forest Service’s i-Tree online tool for urban and community forest analysis features new applications for tree placement planning for individual land parcels, and “modeling the watershed-scale effects that vegetation has on local hydrology and water quality.”

Missouri a great state for solar? That’s right… as are Arkansas, Mississippi, and Wisconsin. A new study out of Arizona State University ranks the optimal state for solar development based on environmental and economic factors.

What’s the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States? Vehicles and energy production receive a lot of attention, but the building sector is actually the biggest contributor to climate change… and 17% of total US emissions come from commercial buildings.

To highlight those facts, and promote building efficiency, the Department of Energy and EPA’s ENERGY STAR program launched the National Building Competition yesterday, which pits fourteen commercial buildings against each other in “a coast-to-coast contest … to save energy and fight climate change.”

Turns out that Madison, Wisconsin’s Benedictine sisters aren’t the only ones greening their house of worship: churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples around the US are implementing a range of green building and energy saving features. In most cases, they’re driven by religious imperatives; cost-savings likely play a role, too. The federal government’s even trying to encourage this behavior: Environmental Leader noted today that congregation buildings are now eligible for ENERGY STAR status.

Solar power is one of the first things most of us consider when trying to cut our energy costs and lighten our carbon footprints. Religious congregations are no different… here are a handful that have added solar features to their houses of worship.

The First Presbyterian Church of Washingtonville, NY, has been heating the building with DIY solar systems for over 30 years!
Bridgeview, Illinois’ Mosque Foundation added solar water heating in 2008, making it the first mosque in the US to adopt solar technology.

Most tips and suggestions for living more sustainably focus on your home. That makes sense, as you have the most control over the energy and other resources you use there. But what about the office? Have you noticed practices there that make your inner greenie cringe, or even scream?

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program has just released a video featuring eco-lifestyle guru Danny Seo discussing ideas for bringing green to work.